THE Taoiseach has been called on to meet with the Cork county mayor and his roads officials to inject ‘some much needed urgency’ into the ‘shortfall affecting roads infrastructure.’
The call came from Independent TD Michael Collins who was speaking after he raised the matter with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Dáil, having previously highlighted the issue at the start of March.
Since then, according to the Independent TD, the government has failed to identify how it plans to address evidence outlined in the independent All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO) report which showed that Cork county is 40 to 50 years behind on funding in respect of roads, rural regeneration, the town and village scheme and the local improvement scheme.
‘I do not think the government fully appreciates the fact that Cork county has seen a staggering drop of €273m in roads allocation funding since 2008, which works out at €1,000 less per kilometre than the national average.
‘The Taoiseach needs to understand that in the absence of a properly functioning, high quality roads network, the entire viability of the county is continuously undermined. It is no good the Taoiseach talking to me or the County Council about utilising property tax to address this issue, which he did today, because the sheer scale of the deficit is far too large to have an impact of that kind,’ he said.
‘I want the Taoiseach to demonstrate his commitment to the regeneration and the future of Cork county by taking some time out of his schedule to the mayor and his officials. The West Cork Municipal District Council alone accounts for the fifth longest road network of any local authority. That fact should be enough to generate the kind of prioritisation that is needed here, with roads in Skibbereen, Bandon, Castletownbere, Clonakilty and Schull in dreadful states.’
